The Minister for Social Inclusion Mark Butler MP and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation Senator Penny Wong recently announced a streamlining measure for Commonwealth grants.
The updated guidelines seek to improve and simplify the interactions around grants between the Government and NFP sector. They require that departments must not seek information from grant applicants and grant recipients that is collected by other Commonwealth entities and is available to agency staff. In particular, departments must not request information provided to the ACNC by a charity regulated by us.
In addition, if a charity provides the ACNC with an independently audited financial statement, then a financial acquittal should not be required by a department, unless the grant has been assessed as higher risk.
These changes will take effect from 1 June 2013.
